Twenty schools have a won a national title since Vince Dooley led the Bulldogs to their 12-0, national championship season in 1980 (with the help of a freshman sensation named Herschel Walker). That list includes five SEC schools (Alabama, Auburn, Florida, LSU and Tennessee) and three ACC schools (Florida State, Clemson and Georgia Tech). Miami (Fla.) also won five before joining the ACC, and is now led by former Georgia coach Mark Richt.

Other schools have longer droughts. Pittsburgh last won a national championship in 1976, meaning every team behind the Bulldogs has either waited 40 or more years or doesn’t have a national championship at all.

That’s part of the season Georgia is in focus now. The Bulldogs are inching closer to that 40-year anniversary of their last title. That seems almost impossible, given the consistent success of the program. Sporting News ranked the top 16 programs since 2000 in July, and Georgia checked in at No. 9: the highest-ranked team without a national championship this millennium.

Expectations are always high, and they’ll be high again in 2017 for Kirby Smart’s second season. Running backs Nick Chubb and Sony Michel made the decision to return to school. Quarterback Jacob Eason should progress as a sophomore, and according to 247Sports' Composite rankings, another top-five recruiting class might be on the way. The Bulldogs have the talent and resources to be a College Football Playoff contender in the near future.

Georgia will be “that team” in the offseason, and we took the bait. The Bulldogs check in at No. 10 in our “Way-Too-Early Top 25.” An early-season test at Notre Dame on Sept. 8 will be fun, and they will have to earn it with tough road tests at Tennessee, Auburn and Georgia Tech, not to mention the annual rivalry game with Florida. That’s a lot of faith in a five-loss team that went 1-3 in those games this season.

The Bulldogs still have a long way to go to compete for a SEC championship — or a national championship. Yet next year could be the start of a run toward those goals. For inspiration, they can look at the Tigers, a school that finally broke through after that long drought and silenced the doubters for good.

Georgia has been waiting 36 years and counting to do the same. That’s the championship drought that comes into focus now.